Recent reviews by esper

you can't team kill
10/10

I absolutely love the game and whole-heartedly recommend it!!
You should know most of these negative reviews were when people believed their game would be half-finished, but it has been picked up by the company that owns Walking Dead (Skybound) and the game will be completed as intended. I'd recommend buying it right now, especially if you are a fan of the original/s.

Raiders, did you just order a large pepperoni and a calzone?

I know DayZ was supposed to leave me with an aftertaste of grit, mud, a hardcore survivalist kind of feeling, like I'd just been ripped out of an episode of Bear Grylls.
What I instead found myself with was actually what I expected and more. That is to say, it was pretty hardcore at being terrible, and it must have been some pretty muddy mud because the aftertaste felt like sh*t.

"Counter Strike: Global Offensive" is a reasonably good first person shooter game, considering its price. It is not super rich on content (especially when it comes to gun variety) but it's selection of maps are enough to pull you in. As you can see from my hours in the game, I have personally very much got my enjoyment out of it. You should know though that CSGO leaves things to be desired when it comes to microtransactions - many players feel a strange obsessive compulsion to quite honestly waste money on skins, which they never use but might show off for about 30 seconds. Also it is a very competitive-driven game, so I wouldn't recommend this if you are looking for a casual experience.
Finally, I would recommend some friends to play with (though most people probably do) as some servers have hackers which aren't fun. If someone has an in-game "low reputation", even if they are your friend, never play with them or your enjoyment will be ruined. Overall, it's a great game, highly recommend it to anyone who is feeling tired of some of the modern FPS games and wants a more fist-clenching competitive experience.

So cute that it's honestly hard to dislike.

As much as I love the original Life Is Strange, I'm going to have to say no to this one, unfortunately.
It hints at some interesting elements but the new character seems like a sappy appeal to create a sappy teenage drama that the Life Is Strange audience seems to want to be eating up. Honestly, as I play I realise that it fails to approach any of that intense emotion that the first game created (for the sake of comparison, not even going to mention BTS). Its art and music design is, of course, undeniably beautiful, but that's all this game has to offer. Its story and point-and-click elements feel mundane, and as much as I wanted to like it I found myself not caring about this character at all. There's nothing to do but chores and play with dinosaurs that I simply do not care about. That may sound harsh, but it's true. The first game dropped you right into the action in a hurricane and sucked you right in (no pun intended), and there was constantly something happening so it felt like an emotional rollercoaster you couldn't put down. With this, I got bored.
I have been excited for Life is Strange 2 for some time but now I play the demo I realise it is a mistake, and is better left as a one time affair.

TLDR: Not worth investing your time into. Get the original game if you haven't already, it's a lot better.

Life is Strange is a Telltale-esque story based adventure game. It doesn't bombard you with constant action necessarily (unlike a lot of modern games) but it takes a very mature and well thought out approach.
It directly confronts a lot of themes that are very common in modern society, such as loss, friendship, love, and people that are evil, manipulative and sometimes even insane.
It conveys it all beautifully and it's hard not to feel reinvigorated by it. The art style is drop-dead gorgeous, and the lighting looks top notch and awe-inspiring. It's story is well thought out and you never feel bored by it. It's very cinematic too, and is presented to you on a nice silver plate, occasionally with a couple jokes thrown in.
The voice acting is constantly superb and the writing is deep, meaningful and makes the game hard to put down. At first it looks like some awful teenage drama, but in all honestly it's quickly become one of my favourite games to date and possibly my favourite telltale-like game (yes, even over walking dead).
The game isn't overly challenging, but it presents you with a variety of puzzles as well. I think they were a very nice touch and cleverly implemented, but occasionally the balance was a little off- some were too easy and some were too hard.
Even that is being nitpicky though. If anything urked me, the controls felt occasionally wonky or awkward and could be handled better. The camera was nicely done but sometimes it felt a little too close. I remember in one particular puzzle I accidentally deselected and went back into the game, having to restart it about 6 times.
The truth is, it's relatability is what makes this game so special, and I'd recommend this to absolutely everyone, even if the start is admittedly a little slow.
It leaves you feeling great about yourself and it inspires you, and reminds you how special and truly strange life is.
P.S. The ending is soul-crushing.

An incredible game in it's own right.
I was far too harsh on this game at launch and highly regret my unfair criticism of the game. It's an incredible game, and the writing is masterful. I highly encourage everyone to play it, and for anyone who might have got turned off by my initial negative review, I'm sorry.

While I understand many of these negative reviews, I'm not going to say it's a flat out horrible game, because it isn't. Allow me to elaborate. Personally, I had a lot of fun with the game, and am finding it surprisingly addictive. It's not even that huge on content, to be honest. But it's balanced well enough, and the guns feel good enough for it to constantly suck you right back in. The new map coming out sounds exciting and I'm looking forwards to it immensely. I will be actively supporting development of this game and will probably still be supporting it/playing it a few years down the line. I've already got my moneys worth from the game.
HOWEVER.
I should mention that the optimization for this game is, still, god awful. Yes they are fixing it, albeit slower than I'd hope. I'm running on an i7 7700 gtx 1070 so that might have largely changed my opinion. If you have a newer high-end PC, as long as you enjoy shooters, I'd recommend buying it right here right now. But if you're using an aging PC, I'd say anything below GTX 660 about, don't waste your money on this game. You can't run it, and you probably won't be able to, so get it on Xbox or save up for a new PC if you want.
I'd give this game a score like I usually do in my reviews, but this isn't the sort of game that needs a set-in-stone rating. So I'm just gonna say, I had fun with it, if you have a good PC you'll probably have a blast with it and get your moneys worth, if it's not powerful or at least semi-modern stay away from it.
P.S. I'd STRONGLY advise playing with friends if you get this, the more the merrier.
Sorry for the long winded review.